First end-to-end fully electronic Presentation into China

Monday, January 07, 2013

January 2013, Singapore and London. Bolero has announced the first fully electronic presentation into mainland China of documents under a Letter of Credit, using the Bolero platform. This is the latest in a series of major milestone achieved by the participants in this transaction. The success of this transaction demonstrates both the readiness of the market to adopt electronic processes as well as the acceptance of the Bolero platform in major geographies and legal jurisdictions.

The electronic presentation related to a shipment of manganese ore from Australia to China. As a fully end-to-end electronic presentation including the Bolero eBL (electronic bill of lading), all parties were connected to the Bolero platform. BHP Billiton was the exporter and beneficiary of the Letter of Credit; the customer and applicant was Sichuan Emei Ferroalloy I/E Co., Ltd. and ANZ bank acted as the advising bank, with China CITIC Bank acting as the first ever Chinese ePresentation receiving bank. The shipping company was “K” Line Pte Ltd. The Letter of Credit was issued under eUCP and all documents required under this Letter of Credit, including the bill of lading, were presented electronically using the Bolero platform, supported by the unique Bolero legal rulebook.

A number of electronic presentations using Bolero have been undertaken elsewhere in Asia, but it is particularly significant to be able to prove acceptance in mainland China, a key export market for the resource industry. Being the first end-to-end electronic presentation into China, this also achieved a number of significant milestones: the first eBL into China with resultant cargo release and customs clearance, the first local Chinese Bank receiving a fully electronic presentation and the first Chinese corporate customer receiving an electronic presentation and surrender of an eBL.

In this transaction, the customer, Sichuan Emei Ferroalloy I/E Co., Ltd., applied to China CITIC Bank for a Letter of Credit (L/C) to be issued under eUCP with BHP Billiton as the beneficiary. The L/C was advised to BHP Billiton using the Bolero export L/C management solution. The Bill of Lading was created on Bolero and made available to BHP Billiton to include in their electronic presentation. BHP Billiton did a fully electronic presentation of all documents required under the L/C to ANZ bank. Following confirmation of compliance by ANZ bank, the electronic presentation was then forwarded over Bolero to the issuing bank, China CITIC Bank, and subsequently forwarded over Bolero to the customer, Sichuan Emei who surrendered the eBL to “K” Line. This program proved the ability to drive the presentation end-to-end through to being promptly honoured and paid by the issuing bank.

“We are very excited about this most recent development.” said Arthur Vonchek, CEO of Bolero. “There is a huge opportunity for both Chinese corporate customers and Chinese Banks to drive broad use of electronic processes in support of trade and trade finance. As Bolero already provides the legal framework and open technical infrastructure to properly support electronic presentation of documents both into and out of China, it is natural that Bolero would become the platform of choice in support of such initiatives.”

Bolero provides comprehensive Trade Finance Applications delivered as web-based SaaS (software as a service) solutions enabling speedy adoption, minimal infrastructure costs and flexible use. Complementing these applications is the unique Bolero electronic multi-banking channel solution which ensures security, legal certainty, non-repudiation and document originality. All Bolero services are deployed for effortless multi-bank use for corporate customers, while at the same time providing a single multi-corporate electronic channel for each bank. Bolero removes the need for both communities to support multiple bank and/or corporate specific processes, interfaces and data formats, clearly driving simplification and standardisation.

About Bolero:

Bolero is a cloud-based platform which provides a different way to implement multi-bank trade finance solutions.

Unlike traditional point to point approaches which are costly, complex and uncertain, Bolero’s cloud architecture ensures fast deployment, ease of use and global access together with no infrastructure costs. Users benefit from accelerated time to cash, reduced costs, greater control and visibility and operational efficiencies.

Because trade finance involves collaboration between multiple parties, all Bolero Applications are built on the Bolero Exchange, a collaborative platform which supports all trade flows between all parties and across all locations. Each Bolero member only needs to connect once and then has common access to all other community members whilst remaining completely insulated from a trade partner’s specific technology and business process.

Bolero is more than a technology solution – it is a community of corporates, banks, insurers and logistics service providers operating in more than 30 countries and managing more than 400,000 trade transactions per month.